Crown crimping collet



Dec. l0, 1957 A. J. ToNNA VETAI. 2,815,630

cRowN CRIMPING COLLET Filed July 13, 195s INVENToRs ARTHUR J. TONNA WOL FGA/VG B. FAHRENBACH @WMM A T TOPNEVS United States Patent O CROWN CRIMPNG CDLLET Arthur J. Tenna, San Francisco, and Wolfgang B. Fahrennach, Oakland, Calif., assignors to San Francisco Brewlng Corporation, San Francisco, Calif., a corporation of California' Application July 13, 1956, Serial No. 597,687

6 Claims. (Cl. 53--356) This invention pertains to a crown cap crimping collet, and more particularly to a collet adapted to surround a crown type cap on a bottle or can and to crimp said cap onto said bottle or can.

Crown type caps have been utilized for years to cap the top of soda water and beer bottles. Beer in cans has been sealed in by the usual can closing processes, and the canshave to be opened by means of a can opener' of some kind. Recently, attempts have been made in the beer industry to taper the top of a can of beer to a small opening and to close` the small opening with a crown type cap.

When conventional capping machines which are utilized to place crown type caps onto bottles were utilized to place crown type caps onto cans, it was found that the nodes of the corrugated fianges of the caps frequently were pinched beyond their ultimate strength, and that, as a consequence, the beer leaked from the cans. The conventional collet has a plurality of spring ngers defined between radially directed slots allowing the fingers to berforced radially inwardly against the crown cap to seal it.v lThe nodes of the crown cap flange catch in the radially directed slots and are-pinched when the spring fingers move into their sealing position.

The device of this invention will be described herein, by rway of example and not of limitation, in connection with crown caps utilized for capping beer cans, for example, the one quart sized beer cans.

Cans are mounted on somekind of conveyor belt or train (not shown) which is adapted to place the can directly under the crown crimping collet. When the can becomes positioned beneath the crimping collet, the crimping collet descends, positions a cap on the top of the can, and surrounds the crown cap. An additional mechanical device pushes the lingers or crimping members of the crown crimping collet against the crown cap to crimp the cap onto the can.

It is important that, when the crimping members or lingers come into contact with the crown cap, there be no open spaces between the members which subsequently narrow, as the members crimp the crown cap, to seize and pinch the cap. If the crimping'members have slots therebetween which are directed in a radial directionr relative to the axis of the Crown'cap, the slots will be continuously narrowed as the crimping members move inwardly toward the center of the crown cap. Any projections, such as the nodes upon the flange or the crown cap, which happen to be aligned with a slot may be seized by the narrowing slot and pinched to cause cracking.

It is an important feature of this invention that the slot between the crimping members have a tangential as well as a radial component relative to the center of the crown cap. The tangential component of the slot between the Acrimping members should be sufficiently large so that radial motion of the crimping members narrows the slot and actually substantially completely closes the slot, or makes the slot small enough so that the crown cap is not seized by the slot. Further radial movement ice of the crimping members in an inward direction toward the center of the crown cap would then cause the slot' to completely close and the bearing members to slide along each other with both a radial and a tangential coinponent of motion.

This invention contemplates, in part, that the slots between circumferentially arranged Cantilevered springs on a crown capping collet shall be directed in a direction, relative to the axis of the collet, to have a sizeable tangential component as well as a radial component so that the` cantilevered springs close the slot therebetween after only a slight motion in a radial direction of the canti levered springs, with the result that the crown cap is never caught between the crimping surfaces of the cantilevered springs, and hence is never crushed.

It is therefore an object of this invention to crimp crown caps without causingV them to leak.

It is another object of this invention to provide means for crimping crown caps onto the top of cans without crackingv them.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a novel crown cap crimping collet to be utilized in a capping machine.

Other objects will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure V1 i's` a prole view, partially in section, of a typical collet of thisV device;

Figure 2 is a/view of a typical collet of this device posi'- tioned relative to a crown cap within a capping machine, with the collet being shownin its normally open position;

Figure 3 is a vie'w taken along lines' 3`-3 of Figure 2;

'Figure 4 is a view of a' typical collet of this invention positioned in a cappingmachine over a crown cap, withl the collet being shown in itsV closed or crimping position; andi Figure 5 is a'A view taken along lines 5 5 of Figure 4'.

Referring now t'o the drawings, there is shown a typical ernl'nodithentu ofV a crown crimping, collet having af circle of crimping members with slots therebetween which have both a tangential and radial component of direction relative to the center of said circlei The exact angle be tween the slots and the radial direction is adjusted for each particular crown cap and capping machine to prevent thecrown cap from beingseized and pinched. The -fact` thatthere is a tangential component to the slot direction is an important feature of this invention.

Collet 28, shown in Figure l, is a right circular cylinder of varying radius. Crimping surfaces 36 are adapted to come into Contact with a crown cap and to crimp the crown cap. Crimping` surfaces 36 are substantially uniformly circumferentially arranged about the axis of symmetry of collet 2S and they are spring biased outwardlyin a radial direction by means of the Cantilevered springs 14 of which they are apart. Crimping surfaces 36 have slotsformed-therebetween as' shown generally at 12. An internally formed shoulder 24 dencs the upper ends of crimpingsurfaees 36. When force means is applied vto cause crimping surfaces 36 to move inward radially to come into contact with a crown cap, slots 12 close and do not seize or pinch the crown cap, because of the tangential component of slots 12.

Cantilevered springs 14 are integral with portion 10 of right circular cylinder 28. Portion 10 of cylinder 28 is adapted to fit into the chuck of a crown capping machine. The springs 14 extend in an axial direction relative to the axis of symmetry of cylinder 28. The slots 12 between the springs 14 are slanted at an angle relative to the radius of cylinder 28, so that they have both a tangential and radial component of direction with respect to the cylinder.

The outside contour of collet 28 comprising stepped camming surfaces 16, 18, 20 and 22 is adapted to cooperates with cam actuating sleeve 34 to cause crimping surfaces 36 to come into contact with a crown cap and to seal it onto a can. Figures 2 and 3 show a typical collet 28 of this invention in its opened position over crown cap 30 which, in turn, is disposed upon the top of can 26. In Figures 4 and 5, collet 28 is shown in its closed, or sealing, position, with crimping surfaces 36 being in pressing engagement with the flange of crown cap 30 to ycrimp it onto can 26. Between the positions of Figures 2 and 4, cam actuating sleeve 34 moves from its up position, as shown in Figure 2, to its down position, as shown in Figure 4, and presses crimping surfaces 36 of cantilevered springs 14 in an inwardly directed radial direction to cause crimping surfaces 36 to crimp cap 30 onto can 26.

When cam actuator 34 engages collet 28, springs 14 and crimping surfaces 36 move from a radially outwardly extended limiting position, as shown in Figure 2, to a radially inwardly limiting position, as shown in Fgure 4. During this motion, springs 14 rst come together to close slots 12, and then springs 14 slide along each other in a combination radial and tangential motion. If crown cap 30 is in position, it is crimped by crimping surfaces 36, but since slots 12 are substantially closed when surfaces 36 contact cap 30, cap 30 is not seized, pinched or cracked.

The collet shown in the drawing, which is one specifically adapted to crimp the caps onto the quart size beer can, is shown to scale, being twice the actual size of the collet used. The actual collet has 18 slots, each being 1252 of an inch in width when wide open. As is indicated in Figure 5, a radius line intersecting the inner end of a closed slot denes with the plane of the slot included angles of 60 and 120 degrees. Thus, each closed slot is substantially closer to being tangential with respect to the inner cylindrical surface consisting of surfaces 36 than to being radial with respect to the cylinder.

The leading inner edges 38 of the spring members are truncated to avoid any knife-like edges, thereby further insuring against any damage to the crown cap.

There has thus been provided by this invention a novel crown crimping collet with tangentially directed slots which are adapted to crimp a crown cap onto a container without pinching and cracking the cap.

Although one particular embodiment of this invention has been described and shown, it is not intended that the invention should be limited to that particular embodiment, but only in accordance with the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A crown cap crimping device comprising: a circle of crimping members having slots therebetween defining interjacent surfaces, said slots having a tangential component of direction relative to said circle; spring biasing means adapted to hold said crimping member in a radially outward position; and means for moving said crimping members inward in a radial direction to thereby close said slots between said crimping members and to cause the interjacent surfaces of said members to slide against each CII other with both radial and tangential components of movement.

2. A crown cap crimping collet comprising: a right circular cylinder of metallic material, the outside of said cylinder being contoured to have a camming surface and being adapted to receive an enclosing sleeve; ,and a plurality of cantilevered springs defining therebetween substantially uniformly circumferentially spaced slots extending axially of said cylinder; said slots being angularly inclined to have a substantial tangential component with respect to the inside of said cylinder.

3. A crown cap crimping collet comprising: a right circular cylinder of metallic material, the outside of said cylinder being contoured to have a camming surface and being adapted to receive an enclosing sleeve; a plurality of cantilevered springs defining therebetween substantially uniformly circumferentially spaced slots extending axially of said cylinder; said slots being angularly inclined to have a substanstial tangential component with respect to the inside of said cylinder; the slotted end of said cylinder having a shoulder internally thereof; and said springs being relieved at the inside of said cylinder to eliminate sharply defined edges.

4. A crown cap crimping collet comprising: a right circular cylinder, the outside of said cylinder being contoured to have a camming surface and being adapted to receive an enclosing sleeve; a plurality of cantilevered springs defining therebetween substantially uniformly circumferentially spaced slots extending axially of said cylinder; said slots being angularly inclined to have a tangential component with respect to the inside of said cylinder which is greater than the radial component thereof with respect to the axis of said cylinder.

5. A crown cap crimping collet comprising: a member in the form of a cylinder adapted to enclose a crown cap; one end of said member having means delining a plurality of slots extending along said member, said slots being substantially uniformly circumferentially arranged about the axis of said member, said slots being directed relative to the axis of symmetry of said member in a direction to have both a tangential and radial component with respect to said cylinder; and spring biasing means associated with said slot forming means adapted to hold said slot forming means radially outward, whereby when an inwardly directed radial force is applied to said slot forming means said slots are forced closed and said slot forming means slide-along each other to an inwardly limiting position. y

6. A plurality of cantilevered springs positioned substantially uniformly in a circle and integrated with a common support, said springs extending from said support in substantially parallel arrangement; said cantilevered springs forming slots therebetween when said springs are relaxed; said slots having both a radial and tangential component of direction with respect to said circle; and means for applying force to said cantilevered springs to flex said springs inwardly in a radial direction whereby said force means causes said springs to come into contact with each other and to slide along each other to a radially inwardly limiting position.

No references cited. 

